Pain
by ruthc93
Summary: One-shot. What exactly happened after Doraemon and Wang Dora parted with Nobita and the others?


**Okay, this is my first The Doraemons fanfic. So let's hope I got everything right and everyone in character, alright?**

**This story deprives from The Doraemons Special Volume 10, where The Doraemons and Nobita went to Insecta, a planet with evolved insects, to look for the most beautiful butterfly in the galaxy. For those that have seen it, this takes place after Wang Dora and Doraemon parted with Nobita and the others. For those that haven't, well, let's just say that Wang Dora was seriously hurt, and Doraemon had to take him back to the spaceship where Kid, Matadora, Dorarinio, and Doramed already were.**

**The words that are **_**bold and italicized**_** are Japanese. If you understand, good for you. If you don't, you're welcome to ask me via reviews or PM.**

**Anyways, this is my tribute to the tiny The Doraemons Fandom. This manga needs more love.**

**Disclaimer: The Doraemons and all its characters belong to Fujiko F. Fujio. I don't own anything!**

_**Pain**_

"I…_**itai**_…"

"Wang Dora, you alright?" Doraemon cast a worried glance at his friend on his back. The Chinese cat-robot forced a smile, "_**Daijoubu**_. It only hurts a little…"

Doraemon shot him a disbelieving look. "A little?"

"Okay, it hurts. A lot." Wang Dora winced as Doraemon shifted him into a more carry-able position. It _hurts_.

Doraemon glanced at his friend again. He yearned to help Wang Dora, or at least make it less painful for him, but there was nothing he could do until they got back to the spaceship. The least he can do is distract him from the pain as much as possible.

"It was a really high risk you took back there. You were brave." Doraemon said, trying to sound cheerful.

"Well, it _was_ the only way to save the princess before I lost my footing, literally, and made her burn in the acid, too." Wang Dora said with a shrug. Then he winced again, since the shrug made his feet scratch against Doraemon's body.

"But I thought you didn't like her?" Doraemon asked nonchalantly. Wang Dora opened his mouth to answer, but stopped. He shot back another question instead. "Whatever gave you that idea?"

"Well, it was obvious that you liked her before, but after we entered the Garden of Death, you stopped liking her."

"…you noticed?"

"It was kind of hard not to, you know. You stopped…_fidgeting_ around her after we entered the Garden."

"Fidgeting?"

"To put it nicely, yes, fidgeting."

"…and to _not_ put it nicely?"

"…uh…squirming."

"_Squirming_?!"

"Unless you want me to find another word to replace it."

Wang Dora sighed, defeated, "I was that bad, huh?"

Doraemon let out a chuckle, "Oh yes, you were."

They continued in silence. Before long, they made it to the lake where they parted with Kid and Dorarinio **(1)**. Just as they were about to go look for a boat to cross the lake, a familiar voice called out to them.

"Doraemon! Wang Dora!"

The two turned (well, Wang Dora turned his head, since he couldn't really move right then) to the source of this voice. They were glad to see a familiar face accompanying it. "Kid!"

"So, it seems you guys couldn't stand that stubborn princess either, eh?" Dora-the-Kid said with a wide smirk. Doraemon laughed nervously, "Well, that's not exactly it. Why are you here, anyways? I thought you went back to the spaceship!"

"We did! But we decided to move the spaceship closer to you guys, in case any of you came back early. Then you guys won't have to walk so far. We were only able to move it here because we don't know where you guys went after Dorarinio and I left." The yellow cat-robot explained. "Well, it looks like we were right in doing so, since, well, here you are."

Doraemon sighed wit relief, "Good, 'cause I don't think Wang Dora can hold on any longer."

Kid frowned, "Wang Dora? Is something wrong with him?"

Doraemon and Wang Dora cast each other a look. Wang Dora shut his eyes before stiffly nodding. Doraemon smiled sadly and began helping Wang Dora get off his back.

Kid gasped. "Wang Dora……you're……your _feet_…they're……_what happened?!_"

"It's a long story…" Wang Dora's sentence trailed of into a yelp when Doraemon accidentally nudged his burned feet with his own.

"Go-_**gomenasai**_!" Doraemon quickly apologized, shifting to support Wang Dora's weight while careful not to touch the brown **(****2****)** cat-robot's feet again. "A-anyways, Kid! We need to get him to the spaceship's infirmary!"

Kid, without a word, walked over and hoisted the wounded cat-robot's other arm around his neck. "You guys should have just shouted the problem the moment we met." He muttered darkly as they half-walked, half-ran towards the spaceship that's now by the lake.

**TDTDTDTDTDTDTD**

Needless to say, when they reached the spaceship, they were greeted by many different levels of emotion. Doramed the Third had rushed towards the infirmary immediately, readying the room for the patient. Dorarinio, ever the soft one, cried and asked over and over questions along the lines of "Does it hurt?", "What happened?", and "Will you be alright?"

El Matadora froze when they carried Wang Dora into the spaceship. For a good three minutes, he just stood there, staring at the wounded cat-robot with disbelief. He was vaguely aware of what Doraemon was telling the others. He did hear one thing, though.

_The Garden of Death_.

His eyes hardened, and he stormed out the spaceship without another word. Kid, recognizing that look on the Spanish cat-robot's face, ran after him.

He caught up with him just as Matadora was about to storm into the Garden of Death.

"Oi, Matadora! _**Matte**_!" Kid all but tackled the red cat-robot.

"Let go of me, Kid!" Matadora hissed, struggling in Kid's hold. "I'll make him pay! The guy who did this to him, _I'll make him pay_!!"

"Apparently, you weren't listening to a thing Doraemon had said." Kid replied bluntly.

"I was!" Matadora argued, his temper dying down a little. "I heard about the Garden of Death!"

"I'll bet my Air Gun that that's the only thing you heard." Kid snorted. Inwardly, Matadora sweatdropped. _He's right._ Outwardly though, he still put up the stubborn-as-bull act. "How would _you_ know that?"

"First, it was a girl, not a guy, who caused Wang Dora's injuries. Second, according to what Doraemon told us, the girl had already paid for what she did. Wang Dora had made sure of that. Last, you do know that there's a _reason_ this place is called the 'Garden of Death', right?"

The last point made the horned cat-robot blink. _A reason…?_

When Matadora continued to look at him blankly, Kid sighed, grabbed one of the horns on Matadora's head ("Oi!"), and made him look at the spot he was going to jump into before Kid had tackled him.

El Matadora gulped.

In front of him was a giant, evolved version of a Venus fly trap. His round hand was only an inch away from touching the sensors on the plant's edge. Had Kid not tackled him when he did, Matadora might have been "trap food" for the rest of his short life.

The rage in him completely dissolved, Matadora took a deep, shaky breath, pulled his hand back, and slowly stood up. Kid had noticed the change in his friend and had let him out of the hold.

"A…_**arigatou**_…" Matadora muttered. Kid smirked and smacked him on the back, "Hey, what are friends for? C'mon, let's go back to the spaceship. I bet everyone is waiting for you." Matadora smiled, and together, the two hot-headed robots made their way back to the spaceship.

"Say, Kid. How were you able the hold me down like that? I _am_ stronger than you, you know."

"It's a secret."

"Curse you."

**TDTDTDTDTDTDTD**

"Will he be okay?"

"I don't know, Dorarinio. I've never dealt with burns like these before - _**aru**_."

"Oh."

There was a moment of silence as Doramed the Third wiped some burn cream on Wang Dora's feet. Wang Dora, having just been fed a pain killer, fell asleep from exhaustion. Dorarinio sat beside them, trying to balance a soccer ball on his head.

"Will he be okay?" Doramed sighed as the question left his Brazilian friend's mouth the umpteenth time. This was getting old. "I've already told you I don't know - _**aru**_. You really need to fix that memory of yours -_**aru**_."

"Oh. _**Gomene**_." Dorarinio smiled sheepishly, the soccer ball dropping from his head. Doramed sighed, but smiled at the green cat-robot's reaction. One just cannot stay angry at Dorarinio for too long.

Doraemon had gone out to find Kid and Matadora, to "make sure they don't kill each other", as the blue cat-robot had said so himself. Doramed had chuckled at that. But with Kid's hasty personality and Matadora's short temper, that might not be too far from the truth.

"I wonder now Nobita-_**kun**_ and Doranikov are doing?" Dorarinio suddenly asked, startling the Arabic cat-robot. _So he does remember…_

"Maybe they're playing soccer somewhere! _Without_ us!" Dorarinio finished with a pout. Doramed almost fell over. _Huh, so much for remembering – __**aru**__._

Meanwhile, a certain blue cat-robot was trudging toward the Garden.

"Kid! Matadora!" Doraemon called over and over, trying to find his two friends.

Doraemon was getting worried. He knew Nobita would be safe with Doranikov, but he still had this nagging feeling that something's about to go wrong. He just hoped that whatever it was, Doranikov and Nobita will be able to pull it off.

"…a secret."

"Curse you."

Doraemon's head perked up at the familiar voices. He beamed when he saw Dora-the-Kid and El Matadora walking together towards him. "Guys!"

"Ah, Doraemon! What are you doing here? How's Wang Dora?" Kid asked in confusion when he spotted his blue friend.

"You just ran off, so I went after you guys, _after_ telling Doramed." Doraemon said pointedly. Kid shrugged, "Hey, if I had stopped to say where I was going, Matadora here wouldn't be seeing the next sunset."

"Shut up." The red cat-robot hissed, though there was no real threat behind his words. "Anyways, how _is_ Wang Dora?"

"I don't know. Doramed is watching over him now."

The three stood there for a while, letting the fact that one of their own might be seriously, or permanently, injured sink in. At last, Doraemon sighed, "Well, we're not going to accomplish anything just standing here. Let's go back."

**TDTDTDTDTDTDTD**

Wang Dora was floating.

He was floating in a mist. Everything was a blur. For some reason, he couldn't move his legs.

_Where am I?_

His eyes refused to open. In a distance, he could hear someone calling his name.

All of a sudden, things started to focus. A giant green head appeared upside-down in his line of vision, with wide, clear orbs staring down at him. Wang Dora did the one thing people usually did when waking up to this kind of situation.

He screamed.

"Ah, you're awake!" The head that he now recognized as Dorarinio's moved away. "But you didn't have to scream…" The naïve cat-robot scratched his ears. Wang Dora didn't know whether to hug him or kick him.

It was then did he remember that he couldn't exactly do the latter.

"Doramed! He's awake!"

As Dorarinio ran off to tell his friend the news, Wang Dora pushed himself up from the futon. Sighing, he looked forlornly at his charred feet.

_I doubt I can use them again._ He thought, defeated. He ears instinctively flattened themselves against his skull, like all the times he got depressed. Without feet, it was doubtful that he can practice kung fu again. That thought along had torn him inside.

"Wang Dora…"

One of his ears twitched at the voice, but it immediately went back against his head. He knew who it was without looking. "Doramed...you were the one that put burn cream on my injuries, right?"

"_**Hai**_, it was me -_**aru**_." The pink cat-robot replied uncertainly. He had seen Wang Dora like this only twice. Once at the "5 Yen Incident" **(3)**, as they came to know it as, and twice when the kung fu master had entered the Robot's Brawl **(4)**. Those were a ­_really_ long time ago.

"Where are Kid and the others?" Wang Dora asked softly. Doramed shrugged. "I don't know - _**aru**_. Matadora ran off, and Kid ran after him. Doraemon went to make sure they don't get hurt - _**aru**_." He stated vocally when he realized Wang Dora still had him head down, making it impossible to see his shrug.

If it was possible, Doramed would have sworn he saw those ears pressed down further. "It's my fault." Wang Dora breathed.

Doramed knew from experience that reasoning with Wang Dora when he's in this state of mind would be impossible. So he tried another way. "You're right; it _is_ your fault…"

Wang Dora's head dropped lower.

"…_if_ they come back hurt - _**aru**_."

Wang Dora looked up in surprise, and, for the first time since he woke up, he saw the concern in his pink friend's eyes. As Wang Dora tried to think of something to say, Doramed marched forward and grabbed his shoulders, "Promise me, Wang Dora. Promise me that, if the others return safe and sound, you _will not_ blame yourself for Matadora's little episode, alright?"

Wang Dora could tell how serious Doramed was. He had even dropped the suffix "_**aru**_" that he usually adds to the end of his sentences. Tears filled Wang Dora's eyes, he nodded. "Ha…_**hai**_…"

"Hey, what's with all the tears?" Someone stated behind them. The two turned their heads to be greeted with Doraemon, El Matadora, and Dora-the-Kid.

It was Matadora who had asked the question. He took a look at Wang Dora's teary face, frowned, and shook his head. "Wang Dora-_**kun**_," He stated. Wang Dora's ears perked up a little at the honorific. Matadora often adds it to annoy him. "Tears do not suit you well. Hurry up and get better, maybe we can have another duel, _**ne**_?"

"Yeah! You promised to help me with my acrophobia! If you don't get better, who's gonna help me?" Kid piped up behind Matadora, pushing Matadora and ended up falling on top of him.

As Matadora asked Kid to get up ("Get the heck off me, _**baka yaro**_!"), Doraemon stepped up, "We all need you, Wang Dora. We won't be The Doraemons without you."

"_**Mi…minna…**_" Wang Dora wiped away his tears, and he smiled. His ears snapped back up, straight and triangular.

Not for the first time, Wang Dora was thankful he had such caring friends.

"Everyone! Look what I got!" Dorarinio suddenly appeared in the infirmary. "Where were you? You disappeared after you told me that Wang Dora woke up…" Doramed said sternly. Even though they were all born in the same year, Dorarinio was always treated as the youngest due to his naivety and forgetfulness.

"I went jogging!"

He received five stares. Dorarinio shrugged, "What? I was bored! Anyways, look what I've got!" He held out his round hand to reveal a fistful of golden dust. "_**Mi ro**_!" He grabbed a utensil from the desk and cut his arm with it.

The other five almost choked on their gasps. "Dorarinio! What do you think you're _doing_?!"

"Just look!" Dorarinio sprinkled the golden dust on the cut, and, magically, the wound disappeared, blood and all.

"……_what_?!" Kid finally managed to squeak out. Doraemon quickly grabbed Dorarinio's used-to-be-wounded arm, turning it to see if there was any trace of the cut.

There wasn't.

"Dorarinio…where did you _get_ this stuff?" Matadora asked after he recovered from the shock.

"It was everywhere! It's coming in waves of air! I grabbed some and ran back as fast as I could!" Dorarinio waved his arms around excitedly. He glanced out the window and beamed, "Look! Here it comes right now!"

As the others, excluding Wang Dora, crowded around the window, they were fascinated by the sight.

Clouds of golden dust were rushing across the land. It was beautiful and enchanting. As the wave got closer, The Doraemons had to shield their eyes from the brightness of it all.

After the light died down, the five glanced out the window again, but everything was quiet.

Until someone spoke.

"My…my wounds……"

Five heads turned to look at Wang Dora. To their surprise, he wasn't on the futon. He was standing on the floor.

"……they're healed!" The Chinese cat-robot all but cheered. At first, no one moved, unsure of what to do. Then Dorarinio ran forward, "_**Yatta**_! You're healed!"

The rest followed his lead and ran to Wang Dora, hugging him from all sides. There were tears of happiness, hugs of brotherly love, and smacks on the back of encouragement.

After they settle down, Doraemon thought of something. "Say, where did that dust come from?"

The others thought for a while, and then Wang Dora concluded, "I think it came from the direction of the castle."

"Hey! If it _did_ come from the castle…" Kid started.

"…then that would mean…" Matadora continued, catching on.

"_Nobita-kun and Doranikov did it!"_

**TDTDTDTDTDTDTD**

After attending the crowning ceremony (and explaining to the princess…er…king why Nobita can't become his bride), The Doraemons and Nobita were on their way home. Their spaceship soared through space, marking their way with a fiery trail.

Wang Dora was in the training room, enjoying the use of his legs to the fullest. Man, he'll never complain that they're short _ever_ again.

As he kicked and punched at a dummy, he thought back to how his friends had been there for him when he was down. They were all there, except…

Except for Doranikov.

"Gau? (Wang Dora?)"

Wang Dora jumped. Talk about excellent timing… "Hey, Doranikov. What's wrong?"

(A/N: I'll be writing the things Doranikov says in understandable words, since I have no intention of writing "gau" all the time and translating everything he says.)

"(Just wanted to see if you're okay.)" The Russian cat-robot gestured happily.

"I'm fine. Thanks for worrying, though." Wang Dora smiled before reaching for a towel. He didn't really need it, since he wasn't sweating at all, but he didn't want Doranikov to think he's super or something (i.e. not breaking a sweat after a full thirty minutes of training).

"(It was Sashel's **(5)** healing dust, wasn't it?)" Doranikov asked after a long period of silence. Wang Dora nodded, "Yeah, I guess. I mean, I wasn't really sure _what_ it was until you and Nobita-kun explained to us."

Doranikov chuckled. "(You know, I was healed the same way.)"

Wang Dora looked up in surprise, "Healed? You were hurt, too?"

"(The enemy slashed me cross the leg with her scythe.)" Doranikov explained after nodding. Wang Dora shuddered. The leg, why did it _have_ to be a leg?!

"Well, I'm glad you got healed." Wang Dora stretched. "Do you want to spar?"

"…………" Doranikov pondered. Then he smiled and nodded. Wang Dora nodded back, "Alright then, here!" He tossed a dorayaki he had grabbed from his four-dimensional sleeve. Doranikov caught it, smirked, and stared at it, long and hard.

He transformed.

"Great!" Wang Dora cheered, "Now, if only we had some hot pepper sauce."

The were-Doranikov looked at him in alarm, frantically shaking his head. Wang Dora laughed, "_**Jodan dayo**_, I was just joking!"

"(Don't joke about something like _that_!!!)"

_**~Owari~**_

**Well, what do you know, we're done! Now, on with the footnotes…**

**(1)- I do realize that there was a large variation of Dorarinio's name. The correct one seems to be "Dorarinho", but I have no idea how that gets the "nio" sound at the end. If you write it down according to the katakana, it's "Dorarinyo", but I found that a little…weird, I don't know. I just don't like it. So, I went with "Dorarinio".**

**(2)- Now, the anime had made Wang Dora orange. But this was deprived from the manga, where he's brown. So I went with brown.**

**(3)- The story can be found in "The Doraemons" Volume 6.**

**(4)- **_**This**_** one can be found in "The Doraemons Special" Volume 1.**

**(5)- Okay, to be honest, the manga I read was in Chinese, so I wasn't really sure about the Princess's name. The closest I got was Sashel, so if someone has seen the original version, please correct me if I'm wrong…**

**So, there goes my first The Doraemons fanfic! I hope you all enjoyed!**

**~ruth~ **


End file.
